Kare11
Minnesota’s first Black-led credit union gets state charter
Arise Community Credit Union is the first new state-chartered credit union in Minnesota in 23 years and first Black-led credit union in the state’s history.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — An eight-year journey is paying off.
“If you know that you might be able to help solve the problem, you can’t walk away,” said Debra Hurston, executive director of the Association for Black Economic Power (ABEP).
The organization started in July 2016 in the wake of several police killings, including the death of Philando Castile. ABEP’s main goal was establishing a Black-led community credit union in north Minneapolis.
“There was a huge need. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a million times, no cavalry was coming. It was a banking desert and the financial institutions that were there were having a hostile relationship with the communities riddled with payday lenders. So people were left to become victims to payday lenders raking over 400% on a loan,” said Hurston, who joined ABEP in December 2020.
According to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis using data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, an applicant of color is more likely to have their application denied than a white applicant with the same income and credit score when applying for a conventional mortgage of the same size for a similar home.
“We decided to come up with a solution and that’s the credit union,” Hurston said.
Arise Community Credit Union is the first new state-chartered credit union in Minnesota in 23 years and the first Black-led credit union in the state’s history.
“Credit unions, they’re nonprofit. So what happens is we still make money. But what happens when we make money, our members pay less interest and earn higher interest. So we put it back into the bank so that we can offer that to our members,” explained Daniel Johnson, CEO-designee for Arise Community Credit Union.
Johnson has more than 20 years of experience in banking.
“We love all and serve all, so we’re going to love and serve everyone. However, we’re going to really make a concerted effort to reach toward the communities and groups that have been left, before us, behind,” Johnson said.
“It’s a good way to build trust in the community,” said Aeton de Long-Hersh, Minnesota Department of Commerce chief examiner for state-chartered credit unions.
De Long-Hersh said credit unions can be either federally or state-chartered.
“How it really works in Minnesota is it’s a dual-chartered option. The state-chartered credit unions are regulated by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, but insured by NCUA (National Credit Union Administration). The federal-chartered credit unions are both regulated and insured by NCUA,” de Long-Hersh explained.
Currently, 70% of the credit unions in Minnesota are state-chartered. There are 61 state-chartered credit unions and 87 total credit unions in Minnesota.
“Department of Commerce, we regulate credit unions. But what that really means is we want to ensure that credit unions are safe and sound but also they have a good strategic plan in place to ensure that they’re viable into the future… we’re there to help them,” de Long-Hersh said.
Arise will be a not-for-profit cooperative owned by members within Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. They will offer more services in phases, starting with the basics like checking and savings accounts and consumer loans.
In the beginning, it will be online banking only. But the goal is to open a brick-and-mortar location in north Minneapolis.
They also plan on holding events around financial literacy.
Arise Community Credit Union expects to be signing up its first members by the end of the year. Johnson has already said Hurston will be their first member.
Arise will be holding an event to celebrate on March 28 at 5:30 p.m. at Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis.
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The former state trooper is charged with the killing of 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Editor’s Note: The above video first aired on 8/26/2024.
The former Minnesota State Patrol trooper charged with the killing of an 18-year-old girl is asking for his case to be dismissed and a change of venue for it to be moved out of Olmstead County.
The former trooper, Shane Roper, and his attorney argue that the “extensive and regional media coverage” jury pools are likely tainted and a fair trial could not be conducted in Olmstead County.
According to a criminal complaint, Roper was driving 83 miles an hour, full throttle with his lights and siren off when he sped through the busy Rochester intersection by the mall and slammed into 18-year-old Olivia Flores.
Records show he’d been suspended twice and reprimanded twice more for similar behavior.
The order from Roper’s attorney also asks the court to preclude the introduction of any evidence related to prior speeding or traffic incidents involving Roper.
Roper and his attorney are asking for charges 1-8 to be dismissed for “lack of probable cause.”
Kare11
‘This doesn’t change anything’ Biden apology for Native American boarding schools draws mixed reaction
For the very first time, a sitting President has apologized for boarding schools that tore Native Americans apart and led to countless cases of abuse and death.
MINNEAPOLIS — During his first presidential visit to Indian Country on Friday, Joe Biden delivered a historic and emphatic apology, acknowledging 150 years of abuse, trauma and death inflicted by Native American boarding schools.
“I formally apologize, as President of the United States of America, for what we did,” Biden said. “It’s one of the most horrific chapters in American history,” said President Biden.
Christine Diindiisi McCleave, former CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, spent years documenting the stories of boarding school survivors and advocating for justice and accountability by the US leaders.
“My family has two generations of boarding school history that I know of,” McCleave said, during an interview for the KARE 11 Series “Lost History,” which detailed the impact of boarding schools in Minnesota.
During his speech on Friday, President Biden acknowledged the work of the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition and efforts to better understand the horrors and generational trauma the schools inflicted.
“Generations of Native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know,” Biden said. “Children abused emotionally, physically and sexually abused, forced into hard labor, some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents. Some left for dead in unmarked graves.”
Christine Diindiisi McCleave: “I struggle with what I’m supposed to say and what I really feel.”
Kent Erdahl: “Why do you say that?”
McCleave: “Well, because today is historic and while I am grateful to see this progress being made. I am also realizing just how short it falls… from real reparations, from real healing.”
She knows she’s not the only one who feels that way. The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition surveyed survivors in 2016.
“The thing they wanted the least was an apology because, while it is an acknowledgement, it doesn’t change anything,” McCleave said. “The majority of them said they wanted a truth commission. Trying to find out exactly how many boarding schools existed, how many children went to those boarding schools and how many children died at those schools.”
She says an investigation led by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, whose grandparents and mother were among those sent to these schools did help better understand that impact, but it only scratched the surface.
“They were only able to investigate the Federal Government’s records,” McCleave said. “Half of these schools were run by churches, of various denominations, and so a truth commission would be able to look into those records as well.”
“Nearly one thousand documented Native child deaths, though the real number is likely to be much, much higher,” Biden said on Friday.
Bills in both the House and the Senate could make that commission a reality, but until that happens, Christine says she can’t ignore the politics of an apology that took place in a swing state, just days before an election.
McCleave: “This apology doesn’t change anything for my mother, who was abused as a child. Of for my grandfather who was a abused at a Catholic Indian Boarding School.”
Erdahl: “Do you hope that this isn’t just an election ploy?”
McCleave: “I hope that this apology actually helps that bill get passed. Native American people are no stranger to being political pawns, so you know what, if this is an election ploy so be it, I hope something good comes out of it.”
Researchers spoke about increased THC potency and the impact on youth brain development.
ST PAUL, Minn. — Whether purchased from dealer or dispensary, weed has become more potent over the years. In 2022, the federal government reported THC levels more than tripled since 1995.
Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate School addressed this Friday at its first cannabis summit. Attendees primarily included the nonprofit’s graduate students as well as undergraduate students from nearby universities.
Speakers included researchers from the University of Minnesota, Hamline University, Mitchell Hamline School of Law and others.
Ken C. Winters, is a senior scientist at the Oregon Research Institute’s Minnesota location and a consultant for the University of Iowa’s Native Center for Behavioral Health.
He covered the interplay between youth, cannabis and health.
“It’s not your grandparents’ marijuana these days,” Winters said to the students.
The Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation Graduate school offers a 2-year program, in which students like John Ryan and William Barksdale are earning counseling degrees in substance use and mental health.
“The takeaway would be that you’ve seen potency levels increase quite a bit, and the research is trying to keep pace with that,” Barksdale said.
“As we saw today, marijuana use has gone up in the last couple years such that it’s eclipsed alcohol use in terms of daily users in the United States,” Ryan added. “It’s is much more concerning now because there is such a higher degree of potency that’s available on a wider basis.”
Ryan says it’s especially concerning for youth.
“The subject of the last presentation, which I found quite engaging, was the specific effects on adolescents,” he said. “So, teenagers and people within that young adult range, the 18 to 25-year-olds because that’s generally the period the most brain development takes place. So that’s the area of concern … but it’s still something that I think is being studied and being observed in the first stages of that.”
Kevin Doyle provided opening remarks. He has more than 35 years of experience as a licensed professional counselor. Today, he’s president and CEO of the grad school.
“Potency, dosage, frequency of use, availability, legal cutoffs in terms of age, all those things need to be talked about,” Doyle said. “Adolescent brain development. We know more and more about that every year. Sometimes it seems like every day we learn more about that.”
“How do we as a treatment community need to be prepared to respond?”
The summit comes as Minnesota works to set rules for the cannabis industry after legalizing the drug for recreational use last year. A public comment period is expected later this fall.
